Monday, October 20, 2008

panoramic view of Sennen Cove in mixed media - to crop or not to crop?

For some reason I don't enjoy working on panoramas in this format - turn it to vertical and I love working on a long thin canvas or paper - horizontal? - no :>(

So I may well crop it to something like this and maybe get a further small painting cut out from the right hand side. What do you think? to crop or not to crop, that is the question.

possible crop?

detail of foreground rocks

detail of the sea

The photograph of the whole piece loses detail and texture so these are close ups of sections of the painting. It's a gloomy rainy day now and it was photographed with flash - never a very good idea, natural light is so much better.

16 comments:

Vivien, I'm only looking at it over the screen, but I'd say don't crop. The composition as is, IMHO, is dynamic and suggestive. I like the lines of the cove - they almost suggest the movement of water. I think the smaller crops lack the strength of those lines.

But, honestly, you should do what looks best in person. Your work is always impressive!

Oh, I like the horizontal format and the big sweeping circular motion you get within this composition. But, I see what you mean with the square crop too - that also works very well. Hmmm. . maybe two pieces from this image?

Leave it panorama - that one has most effect - I am not a painter but I do like what we photographers call 'letterbox' images. I love long thin uprights too. Never been keen on squares but that's me.Any more digital images pending? Love them best of all. I was even going to be cheeky and ask how you get those effects - the translucent ones.Cheers

About Me

I'm interested in painting the light and colours of landscapes as they change through seasons, the time of day or weather.
Seascapes feature strongly in my work as I love the coast, a love which developed when I lived near the sea as a child in Cornwall, Scotland, Malta and Gibraltar - each place with its special light and colour.
I realise too that I love the edges of things - for instance the coast, where the sea meets the land, the edges of woods where the trees meet the open fields.
I paint in most media and experiment with digital imagery - as a creative process related to my painting but also creating work that exists in its own right.
Another interest is photography, mainly as something in its own right, as I only rarely paint from photographs. The same elements interest me here as in my painting.
Apart from painting and photography, I teach art to adults and have all the normal preoccupations, trials and tribulations of women with families ... and cats.